Hereford faced Southern League Premier side Merthyr Town at Edgar Street this afternoon in the Herefordshire FA Senior Invitation Cup, the Bulls’ final preseason friendly. Manager Pete Beadle, along with his assistant, ex-Merthyr boss Steve Jenkins, made 5 changes to the team that started at Kidderminster on Tuesday evening, with a ‘new’ trailist Chris Jones amongst the changes.

Chris Jones

Merthyr got proceedings underway attacking the Meadow End in the first half, and got themselves off to the best possible start, opening the scoring within the first minute. Ian Taylor’s initial shot was only parried by keeper Martin Horsell, and with the rebound falling to his feet, he easily slotted the ball home.

With 6 minutes on the clock, Anthony Robbins could’ve levelled the score after a great through ball by John Mills, but his powerful shot from outside the area went narrowly wide of the target. Then, moments later, winger Chris Jones had his effort on goal deflected behind off a defender with the resulting corner easily dealt with by the Martyrs’ defence.

10 minutes later, Kayne McLaggon came close to scoring Merthyr’s second of the afternoon, but his diagonal shot lacked any real conviction as Horsell was able to easily gather the effort; but in the 21st minute Keyon Reffell doubled the visitors’ lead. Hereford’s defence failed to close Reffell down meaning he was able to fire home from the edge of the area.

Merthyr's Second Goal

The Bulls did manage to pull a goal back in the 33rd minute thanks to Pablo Haysham. John Mils was able to take advantage of a defensive error, subsequently playing the ball back to his striking partner Haysham; goalkeeper Glyn Gardner managed to get a hand to Haysham’s right-footed effort, but it wasn’t enough to prevent him from reducing the deficit.

Pablo Haysham With His Goal

HT: Hereford 1 – Merthyr Town 2

The second half got off to a slow start with both teams committing numerous fouls as well as making a number of substitutions.

Handbags Haysham

The first real action of the period came just after the hour mark when Horsell did well to push Ryan Prosser’s shot around the post, but Merthyr were unable to test Horsell from the resulting corner.

Former Hereford United Player Jon Brown Gets In Front Of Haysham

Meanwhile at the other end of the pitch, Mike Symons connected with Chris Jones’ cross, but his flicked header was easily caught by Merthyr’s stopper.

Joel Edwards Gets His Head to The Ball

With 7 minutes left on the clock, Merthyr found themselves down to ten men after Rhys Baggridge appeared to elbow substitute Jamie Cuss in the face. With Cuss lying in need of treatment, referee Chris Smith swiftly dismissed Baggridge.

Despite shots from Aaron Birch and Joe Tumelty in the dying stages of the games, as well as a handful of corners, Hereford couldn’t find a way through the Martyrs’ resistant defence.

Gavin Williams started his career at Edgar Street. This afternoon he returned to the ground as manager of Merthyr Town, came on as a substitute and lifted the HFA Senior Cup.

"Obviously it's nice to be back," Williams told BN.

"It's nice to win the game but I thought there were two good teams out there today.

"I'm sure Hereford will do well in their league. It was good to have a good game. Considering it's our last pre-season I thought it was a really good test for us.

"We started well, we started on the front foot but to be fair I think the game was a bit false. Hereford had a lot of players missing, we've had players missing so both teams were patched up teams really.

"But it was good to get a game and get the win."

It's not the first time Williams has been back to Edgar Street.

"I've been back here with Yeovil and got booed

"I owe a lot to Hereford, this is where my career started and I'll always have fond memories of this place."

Williams was asked that given Ryan Green and Steve Jenkins have jumped ship were there any more that might interest Peter Beadle?

"I hope not! I've got some good players over there. People will be interested in good players. Football works both ways. It's similar with Hereford, they will have good players clubs will be looking at.

"It's how the game works and you've got to deal with it."

How will Merthyr do this season?

"Obviously it's a bit unknown for me this being my first job but I know the players, I know the League so I hope we have a good season and it's important we start the season well.

"Hopefully I'll make a few appearances. I've had two knee operations last year but I've been playing pre-season so maybe twenty minutes as they come."

"And then just sloppy throughout the whole game, passes too short, some not even in the right areas.

"And for me it felt like the boys were just waiting for someone else to do something, for something to happen.

"I just said to them in there you can't wait for things to happen sometimes and I'm not prepared to take excuses about disruption because some people are away, one or two with injuries or knocks or things like that.

"It's pre-season so I'm not worried about the result it's the performance.

"And the performance today after Tuesday was nowhere near good

enough."

Chris Jones

There was one fresh trialist in the starting eleven this afternoon, Chris Jones a winger.

"He's been around a little bit in fact he's just come back from Canada where he's been for six months.

"Great for him as the team he was with in Canada they got into the playoffs so we had to wait a bit longer for him to come in.

"I thought he did great today, first half he looked bright and sharp and lively so we'll see how he goes.

"We might keep him for a little bit longer to have a real good look at him, I thought he did fine today."

The defence was missing Jimmy Oates and Jamie Willets along with Ryan Green who will remain sidelined for another two weeks.

"I think the whole team was poor from one to eleven. Chrissy did okay first half, Joel didn't do bad first half but the players you expect so much more from I thought it was a little lacklustre, a little bit flat.

"Don't get me wrong we've worked hard pre-season but they can't say they've had too many minutes or not enough games. The ones that have are people like Chris Barker who has had to play every game because of injuries or holidays and with Nathan (Summers) leaving he's had to play nearly every pre-season game.

"So the others have got no excuses really.

"Yes it was makeshift a little bit, two midfield players playing at the back but Rob (Purdie) has played full back in games in the Conference and probably in the League so he's more than capable of playing there and Jamie (Edge) played a few times as a centre half in the Conference South last year with Weston so he's more than capable of playing there.

"That doesn't take away from how poor both goals were.

"I could play centre half and I would be disappointed to conceed two goals like that.

"I'm disappointed and they need to be better."

The last three friendlies have been against higher opposition and Beadle admitted they had been a huge test.

"They've given us a marker of where we are.

"I thought we did extremely well for fifty minutes against Kidderminster, I thought we did extremely well for fifty minutes against FC United. Obviously at FC United with the changes all coming out at one disrupted it a little bit so I don't mind that but today was nowhere near good enough.

"Like I said we've had a few changes and we have to change the shape a little bit and we've had to change personnel a little bit but that doesn't take away from the fact that I felt they wanted it more than we did.

"It doesn't matter where you're playing or who you're playing if they want it more than you they are going to win and they did today."

According to Shortwood FC, Hereford FC have decided not to sell tickets to their supporters for the away game at Shortwood on Tuesday August 16th.

It appears Hereford required £1 per adult ticket to cover their costs but The Southern League felt that Hereford should add £1 onto each ticket to cover their costs.

This from Shortwood FC:

Following the decision to make the Hereford game all ticket Shortwood
offered to make tickets available to Hereford to sell to their own
supporters at the cover charge of £9 and also to make Under 16's tickets
which would be free available to them.Hereford advised us that they would happily sell the tickets but would
only pay Shortwood £8 for each ticket sold to cover their costs. The
Southern League ruled that this was unacceptable and any booking fee
should be passed on to the buyer if they wanted to make a charge. And
have notified each club in the divison of this ruling.Hereford have now informed us that they will now not sell tickets to
their supporters which is a decision Shortwood regret as it is a severe
inconvenience to any Hereford fan as they must buy the tickets in person
from Shortwood or one of their outlets in person .

Shortwood will obviously make an exception to any disable supporter if
they contact the club and their carer will be given a free ticket.The club feel that they have acted properly and are sorry for any inconvenience to any Hereford fan who wishes to attend.

Today is expected to be a very busy day at Edgar Street not only because of the friendly against Merthyr but also because it's the first time the recently reseeded pitch has been used and there are new goalposts as well.

On top of that the new home shirt will be on sale, season tickets can be purchased and HUST will have a stall to promote membership.

The VP club will be back in their original room now called the Montgomery Waters Executive Club.

There is also a buffet reception for sponsors and a collection to raise funds for three children from the same family who have Batten Disease.

But one of the biggest changes will be a new ticket office which is situated to the right of the main club entrance. It will open at 10am for supporters who have pre-booked tickets and for those purchasing tickets 'on the day'. Season tickets can be purchased until 2pm.

As last season, there will be two cash turnstiles on the Meadow End.

Whilst the game itself is Hereford's last pre-season friendly before the League starts next Saturday, the game doubles as the HFA Senior Cup.

The rules are quite simple. If the game is drawn after ninety minutes it's straight to penalties.

For those unable to be at Edgar Street this afternoon, it's very easy to keep up with the match action.

Radio Hereford FC will have live commentary, Hereford FC In Action will have video updates within seconds and BN will be tweeting from the match.

Friday, July 29, 2016

Following on from the relaunch of our website, HUST are pleased to
be able to launch our first annual Fans Survey, open to all supporters
of Hereford FC.

It's extremely important to us, as a supporters trust, that we represent the
supporters of our football club. We feel that conducting this survey gives us a
great opportunity to build a picture of our supporter base, and how they feel
about various topics, including ticket prices, fundraising, and the direction
that you want HUST to go over the coming season.

We took the decision to make this survey open to everyone, be they HUST members
or non-members, as well as wanting to include those who have not been able to
make the transition from Hereford United FC to Hereford FC supporters. The
opinions of everyone within these categories are equally valid, and we felt
that it was important that we take them all into account as HUST moves forward.

The survey is available online at http://hustfanssurvey2016.questionpro.com, and there will also be
paper copies for those without online access. These will be available from HFC
club reception, and at the HUST membership table on match days, starting
outside the ground on Saturday, prior to the HFA Senior Cup match against
Merthyr. They will also be available at the first two league fixtures on the
9th (Mangotsfield United) and 13th (Bridgewater Town) of August.
The closing date of the survey will be Saturday 20th August. Paper copies can
be returned to HFC club reception by post ((address supplied at the end of the
survey) or in person, to any HUST board member, or at the HUST membership
table, prior to the following home matches:

Mangotsfield United – 9th August
Bridgewater Town – 13th August
Alvechurch or Haughmond (FA Cup Prelimary Round) – 20th August

By viewing this
website,
you must agree to the
following terms:
The opinions
expressed here are not
those of Hereford FC
and should not be
considered as such.
Hereford FC is
not responsible for the
content of this website.
This website is not
connected in any way
to any football club,
league, organisation, forum or
sponsor.
Bulls News is not
responsibile for any
external links.
Please do not copy any original pictures from this site without prior permission. Other material may be copied provided Bulls News is mentioned.